From the GAO (via Indianz):

GAO has identified a number of long-standing financial and programmatic deficiencies in Interior’s Indian and Island Community programs.

• While Interior has taken significant steps in the last 10 years to address weaknesses in certain Indian programs, it is still in the process of implementing key trust fund reforms, including preparation of a timetable for completing remaining activities, to effectively manage more than 300,000 trust fund accounts with assets of more than $3 billion. Further, in the department’s consolidated financial statements, the management of Indian trust funds continues to be reported as a material internal control weakness.

  Highlights of GAO-07-104 (PDF)

• GAO has also reported on serious delays in the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) program for determining whether the department will accept land in trust—as of the end of fiscal year 2005, more than 1,000 land in trust applications from tribes and individual Indians were pending. While BIA generally followed its regulations for processing land in trust applications, it had no deadlines for making decisions on them.

  Highlights of GAO-06-781 (PDF)

• In addition, the department could be doing more to assist the island communities of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the three sovereign island nations with long-standing financial and program management difficulties in accurately accounting for expenditures, collecting taxes and other revenues, controlling the level of expenditures, and delivering program services—all of which resulted in numerous federal agencies designating some of the governments as “high-risk” grantees. Further, the department faces challenges in addressing the failing economy in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and assisting Guam in preparing for the anticipated expansion of military personnel.

  Highlights of GAO-08-655 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-466 (PDF), Full Report of GAO-07-514R (PDF, 74 pages), Highlights of GAO-08-791 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-07-163 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-07-119 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-732 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-07-513 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-06-590 (PDF)

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